Or maybe 2 boats (?)
Not sure about the math on this one.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2254780/Spectacular-photo-captures-moment-great-white-gobbled-EVEN-BIGGER-shark-hauled-fishermans-boat.html
Sunday, December 30, 2012
We're gonna need a bigger boat.
Or maybe 2 boats (?)
Not sure about the math on this one.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2254780/Spectacular-photo-captures-moment-great-white-gobbled-EVEN-BIGGER-shark-hauled-fishermans-boat.html
A Sunday night history lesson.
It's been said before that truth is stranger than fiction and, as this story proves, often times a lot funnier.
I love a story where the bad guy/bully/idiot gets his due.
The Battle of Hayes Pond refers to an armed confrontation between the Ku Klux Klan and Lumbee Indians near Maxton, North Carolina, on the night of January 18, 1958. Sanford Locklear, Simeon Oxendine and Neill Lowery were leaders among the Lumbee who challenged and routed the Klan that night.
During the 1950s, independent chapters of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) conducted terrorist actions throughout the American South, in part in reaction to rising civil rights actions, economic progress by African Americans, and the US Supreme Court ruling in 1954 calling for public school desegregation. Cars filled with KKK men traveled from South Carolina to small towns in North Carolina to intimidate people.[1]
In 1957, Klan Grand Dragon James W. "Catfish" Cole, an evangelist and radio preacher in South Carolina, began to harass the Lumbee Indians and other minorities of Robeson County, North Carolina.[2] He had been charged with building up the Klan in the state.[1] Cole told newspapers: "There's about 30,000 half-breeds up in Robeson County and we are going to have some cross burnings and scare them up".[citation needed]
On January 13, 1958, a group of KKK burned a cross on the lawn of a Lumbee woman in the town of St. Pauls, North Carolina, as "a warning" because she was dating a white man. The Klan burned a cross on the lawn of a Lumbee family who had moved into a white neighborhood. Cole spoke against the "mongrelization" of the races and announced plans for a Klan rally on January 18, 1958, near the small town of Maxton, intended “to put the Indians in their place, to end race mixing”.[3] His speeches, referring to the "loose morals" of Lumbee women, provoked anger among the Lumbee. Robeson County Sheriff Malcolm McLeod met with Cole and told him that "his life would be in danger if he came to Maxton and made the same speech he'd been making".[citation needed] Cole proceeded with his plans.
[edit]Rally
On the night of the rally, only 50-100 Klansmen arrived at the private field, most armed with rifles or small arms. Before Cole began speaking, over 500 Lumbee men, many armed with sticks or guns, appeared and encircled the assembled Klansmen.[2] First the Lumbee shot out the one light, then began yelling and attacked. They shot their guns into the air; four Klansmen were lightly wounded. With the light out, the remaining Klansmen fled the scene, leaving family members, the public address system, unlit cross, and various Klan regalia behind. James W. "Catfish" Cole reportedly left his wife behind and escaped through a nearby swamp.[citation needed] Curious onlookers had also shown up.
Afterward, the Lumbee celebrated by holding up the abandoned KKK banner; Charlie Warriax and World War II veteran Simeon Oxendine were shown wrapped in it in Life magazine photos.[4] Oxendine, Neill Lowery and Sanford Locklear were acknowledged leaders among the Lumbee.[1] Many local, state and national newspapers covered the event and captured photos of Lumbee burning the regalia and dancing around an open fire in nearby Pemberton (now a suburb of Raleigh). North Carolina Governor Luther H. Hodgesdenounced the Klan in a press statement. Cole was prosecuted, convicted, and served a two-year sentence for inciting a riot.[2] Since then, the Lumbee celebrate the day of the Battle of Hayes Pond annually as a holiday.
The Klan ceased its activities in Robeson County thereafter.
I love a story where the bad guy/bully/idiot gets his due.
 |
| Love the smile on that guy's face; says it all! |
Battle of Hayes Pond
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaThe Battle of Hayes Pond refers to an armed confrontation between the Ku Klux Klan and Lumbee Indians near Maxton, North Carolina, on the night of January 18, 1958. Sanford Locklear, Simeon Oxendine and Neill Lowery were leaders among the Lumbee who challenged and routed the Klan that night.
During the 1950s, independent chapters of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) conducted terrorist actions throughout the American South, in part in reaction to rising civil rights actions, economic progress by African Americans, and the US Supreme Court ruling in 1954 calling for public school desegregation. Cars filled with KKK men traveled from South Carolina to small towns in North Carolina to intimidate people.[1]
In 1957, Klan Grand Dragon James W. "Catfish" Cole, an evangelist and radio preacher in South Carolina, began to harass the Lumbee Indians and other minorities of Robeson County, North Carolina.[2] He had been charged with building up the Klan in the state.[1] Cole told newspapers: "There's about 30,000 half-breeds up in Robeson County and we are going to have some cross burnings and scare them up".[citation needed]
On January 13, 1958, a group of KKK burned a cross on the lawn of a Lumbee woman in the town of St. Pauls, North Carolina, as "a warning" because she was dating a white man. The Klan burned a cross on the lawn of a Lumbee family who had moved into a white neighborhood. Cole spoke against the "mongrelization" of the races and announced plans for a Klan rally on January 18, 1958, near the small town of Maxton, intended “to put the Indians in their place, to end race mixing”.[3] His speeches, referring to the "loose morals" of Lumbee women, provoked anger among the Lumbee. Robeson County Sheriff Malcolm McLeod met with Cole and told him that "his life would be in danger if he came to Maxton and made the same speech he'd been making".[citation needed] Cole proceeded with his plans.
[edit]Rally
On the night of the rally, only 50-100 Klansmen arrived at the private field, most armed with rifles or small arms. Before Cole began speaking, over 500 Lumbee men, many armed with sticks or guns, appeared and encircled the assembled Klansmen.[2] First the Lumbee shot out the one light, then began yelling and attacked. They shot their guns into the air; four Klansmen were lightly wounded. With the light out, the remaining Klansmen fled the scene, leaving family members, the public address system, unlit cross, and various Klan regalia behind. James W. "Catfish" Cole reportedly left his wife behind and escaped through a nearby swamp.[citation needed] Curious onlookers had also shown up.
Afterward, the Lumbee celebrated by holding up the abandoned KKK banner; Charlie Warriax and World War II veteran Simeon Oxendine were shown wrapped in it in Life magazine photos.[4] Oxendine, Neill Lowery and Sanford Locklear were acknowledged leaders among the Lumbee.[1] Many local, state and national newspapers covered the event and captured photos of Lumbee burning the regalia and dancing around an open fire in nearby Pemberton (now a suburb of Raleigh). North Carolina Governor Luther H. Hodgesdenounced the Klan in a press statement. Cole was prosecuted, convicted, and served a two-year sentence for inciting a riot.[2] Since then, the Lumbee celebrate the day of the Battle of Hayes Pond annually as a holiday.
The Klan ceased its activities in Robeson County thereafter.
[edit]
This is a sweet story.
Country singer Kellie Pickler was performing at a concert in Nashville over the weekend when a woman from the audience approached the stage and shared a personal moment with the singer.
http://music.yahoo.com/blogs/our-country/kellie-pickler-shares-remarkably-personal-moment-fan-concert-161430246.html
Not many people, much less lady-folk, can pull off the shaved head look.
KP shaved her noggin' to show support for a friend who has breast cancer.
She seems ok.
Friday, December 28, 2012
For the last couple weeks I have been trying hard to avoid political commentary.
It's too depressing.
And it's too easy to veer into really negative and unimaginative writing that no-one wants to read.
I don't like it.
But, I think the fact that the newspaper in New York published the addresses of gun owners has crossed American politics over into something else; something ugly.
It's scary how an American paper would seek to intimidate, embarrass, and harass ordinary citizens who are, whether you and I agree with it or not, acting within their constitutional rights.
These people haven't committed any crimes, they just own guns.
And the paper doesn't like it and decided to publish their home addresses.
Seriously think about that.
What if they start publishing lists of the people who oppose some policy the paper supports?
How much longer before they publish a list of SUV owners?
Or people who consume too much electricity or natural gas?
Who don't recycle?
People who own fur?
People whose houses are "too big"?
Unfortunately, this is the real, "And I said nothing...." moment.
And, despite the article below, I'm not seeing many people saying anything.
Ed. Note:
El Duecey sent me this note via email yesterday:
was trying to post the below but somehow keep failing at my attempt to keep up with the Jones' ...
Smart find & post EPPdF. There are so many 'wrongs' with posting this information that it is hard to imagine that they thought this one all the way through.
So much of the discussion around 'gun control' is positioned in binary focused discussions. The NRA has taken a very hard line that seems silly to me but protects something important to their leadership. Others take a 'zero guns' approach that seems destined to just make noise rather than make any real progress.
This brings me to the thought of 'progress toward what end' and off into the abyss I go...
Gun owner map ricochet: Blogger publishes journalists' personal data
A newspaper published names and addresses of thousands of legal handgun owners, generating widespread criticism. In retaliation, a blogger mapped the names and addresses of the journalists.
By Brad Knickerbocker, Staff writer / December 27, 2012
Hand guns that were turned in by their owners in a trash bin at a gun buyback held by the Los Angeles Police Department. People can anonymously trade in their guns, no questions asked, for $200 grocery store gift cards for automatic weapons and $100 gift cards for shotguns, handguns and rifles.
David McNew/REUTERSEnlarge
The flap over the newspaper that published information about handgun owners in two New Yorkcounties has ricocheted back toward the news organization.
Thousands of critics – including some journalism professionals – have weighed in. And at least one blogger has retaliated by publishing the names and addresses of editors and executives at the Journal News, the publication headquartered in White Plains, N.Y., north of New York City and part of the Gannettorganization.
Still, the Journal News is not backing down. Editors say they’ll publish information on handgun owners in a third county (Putnam) once county officials have responded to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that resulted in tens of thousands of names and addresses in Westchester and Rockland Counties.
The controversy began over the weekend when the Journal News ran a story on some 44,000 registered handgun owners in the two counties, including names and addresses showing exactly where those gun owners live using Google Maps. “The gun owner next door: What you don't know about the weapons in your neighborhood,” read the headline.
In the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school massacre that killed 20 first-graders and six school employees, quickly followed by a raging debate over gun control and Second Amendment rights, it’s not surprising that journalists would look for fresh and provocative angles to cover the story.
David Gregory, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” has taken flak for showing an ammunition magazine in his interview with National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre last Sunday. Such large-capacity magazines are banned in the District of Columbia, where the show was taped.
The online magazine Slate has partnered with the anonymous creator of the Twitter feed @GunDeaths to craft what it calls “an interactive, crowdsourced tally of the toll firearms have taken since Dec. 14” – the day when 20-year-old Adam Lanza, armed with an assault-style rifle, two handguns, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in large-capacity magazines, forced his way into the Sandy Hook grade school in Newtown.
The Slate map details 206 gunshot deaths in the United States since Sandy Hook, including 21 teens and children.
But publishing the names and addresses of legitimate handgun owners is seen as very different from tallying gun deaths or discussing aspects of weaponry. (The Journal News report does not include “long guns” – shotguns and rifles, including assault-style rifles – which do not require licenses.)
Syracuse University journalism professor Hubert Brown told CBS News, “Mapping-based journalism is a big trend right now, but we have to be very very careful about the types of information that we are going to publish here.”
Related stories
Second Amendment Quiz
Sharp criticism after New York newspaper publishes names of local gun owners
Gun control: Is David Gregory’s on-air stunt proof of media bias?
NRA’s LaPierre doesn’t back down from ‘crazy’ guns-in-schools proposal
“In this case I think that the newspaper has gone a little bit too far in terms of publishing information that actually stigmatizes people,” he said. "I think it's a bit disingenuous of the Journal News to say that they are just giving information out here. They were taking a position on guns.”
Of some 20,000 registered handgun owners inRockland County, CBS also reported, 8,000 of them are active duty or retired police officers who may now feel vulnerable to criminals they’ve sent to prison looking for revenge and just a mouse-click away from knowing the officers’ home addresses.
Some observers have likened the map of legal gun owners to public data on registered sex offenders.
“The problem is not that the Gannett-owned Journal News was too aggressive,” wrote Al Tompkins of thePoynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., which teaches journalism practices and ethics in newsrooms, classrooms, and online. “The problem is that the paper was not aggressive enough in its reporting to justify invading the privacy of people who legally own handguns in two counties it serves.”
Among the most outspoken critics of the Journal News’s controversial gun map project is lawyer and author Charles Fountain, who blogs at “For What It’s Worth.”
This week, he published the names, addresses and other contact information for the newspaper's publisher, editor, and other staff members connected with the news story and map. (In an “Editor’s note,” the newspaper already had acknowledged that reporter Dwight R. Worley, who wrote the story, “owns a Smith & Wesson 686 .357 Magnum and has had a residence permit in New York City for that weapon since February 2011.”)
"Somehow, [The Journal News was] conflating legal gun owners with some crazed, tormented devil up in Newtown and putting the two together, and I was offended by that and I wondered how they'd like it if their addresses were published,” Mr. Fountain said on CNN.
“I’ve received e-mails from abused women who were under protective order and in hiding, and they’re terribly afraid that now their names and addresses are all over the Internet and accessible through that map,” he added.
So far, the newspaper is sticking by its journalistic guns.
“Frequently, the work of journalists is not popular,” Journal News Publisher Janet Hasson said in a statement. “One of our roles is to report publicly available information on timely issues, even when unpopular. We knew publication of the database (as well as the accompanying article providing context) would be controversial, but we felt sharing information about gun permits in our area was important in the aftermath of the Newtown shootings.”
Thousands of critics – including some journalism professionals – have weighed in. And at least one blogger has retaliated by publishing the names and addresses of editors and executives at the Journal News, the publication headquartered in White Plains, N.Y., north of New York City and part of the Gannettorganization.
Still, the Journal News is not backing down. Editors say they’ll publish information on handgun owners in a third county (Putnam) once county officials have responded to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that resulted in tens of thousands of names and addresses in Westchester and Rockland Counties.
The controversy began over the weekend when the Journal News ran a story on some 44,000 registered handgun owners in the two counties, including names and addresses showing exactly where those gun owners live using Google Maps. “The gun owner next door: What you don't know about the weapons in your neighborhood,” read the headline.
In the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school massacre that killed 20 first-graders and six school employees, quickly followed by a raging debate over gun control and Second Amendment rights, it’s not surprising that journalists would look for fresh and provocative angles to cover the story.
David Gregory, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” has taken flak for showing an ammunition magazine in his interview with National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre last Sunday. Such large-capacity magazines are banned in the District of Columbia, where the show was taped.
The online magazine Slate has partnered with the anonymous creator of the Twitter feed @GunDeaths to craft what it calls “an interactive, crowdsourced tally of the toll firearms have taken since Dec. 14” – the day when 20-year-old Adam Lanza, armed with an assault-style rifle, two handguns, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in large-capacity magazines, forced his way into the Sandy Hook grade school in Newtown.
The Slate map details 206 gunshot deaths in the United States since Sandy Hook, including 21 teens and children.
But publishing the names and addresses of legitimate handgun owners is seen as very different from tallying gun deaths or discussing aspects of weaponry. (The Journal News report does not include “long guns” – shotguns and rifles, including assault-style rifles – which do not require licenses.)
Syracuse University journalism professor Hubert Brown told CBS News, “Mapping-based journalism is a big trend right now, but we have to be very very careful about the types of information that we are going to publish here.”
Related stories
Second Amendment Quiz
Sharp criticism after New York newspaper publishes names of local gun owners
Gun control: Is David Gregory’s on-air stunt proof of media bias?
NRA’s LaPierre doesn’t back down from ‘crazy’ guns-in-schools proposal
“In this case I think that the newspaper has gone a little bit too far in terms of publishing information that actually stigmatizes people,” he said. "I think it's a bit disingenuous of the Journal News to say that they are just giving information out here. They were taking a position on guns.”
Of some 20,000 registered handgun owners inRockland County, CBS also reported, 8,000 of them are active duty or retired police officers who may now feel vulnerable to criminals they’ve sent to prison looking for revenge and just a mouse-click away from knowing the officers’ home addresses.
Some observers have likened the map of legal gun owners to public data on registered sex offenders.
“The problem is not that the Gannett-owned Journal News was too aggressive,” wrote Al Tompkins of thePoynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., which teaches journalism practices and ethics in newsrooms, classrooms, and online. “The problem is that the paper was not aggressive enough in its reporting to justify invading the privacy of people who legally own handguns in two counties it serves.”
Among the most outspoken critics of the Journal News’s controversial gun map project is lawyer and author Charles Fountain, who blogs at “For What It’s Worth.”
This week, he published the names, addresses and other contact information for the newspaper's publisher, editor, and other staff members connected with the news story and map. (In an “Editor’s note,” the newspaper already had acknowledged that reporter Dwight R. Worley, who wrote the story, “owns a Smith & Wesson 686 .357 Magnum and has had a residence permit in New York City for that weapon since February 2011.”)
"Somehow, [The Journal News was] conflating legal gun owners with some crazed, tormented devil up in Newtown and putting the two together, and I was offended by that and I wondered how they'd like it if their addresses were published,” Mr. Fountain said on CNN.
“I’ve received e-mails from abused women who were under protective order and in hiding, and they’re terribly afraid that now their names and addresses are all over the Internet and accessible through that map,” he added.
So far, the newspaper is sticking by its journalistic guns.
“Frequently, the work of journalists is not popular,” Journal News Publisher Janet Hasson said in a statement. “One of our roles is to report publicly available information on timely issues, even when unpopular. We knew publication of the database (as well as the accompanying article providing context) would be controversial, but we felt sharing information about gun permits in our area was important in the aftermath of the Newtown shootings.”
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Dropkick Murphys - "The Season's Upon Us" (Video)
I may have found this a day or two late but it's still funny!
Enjoy.
Enjoy.
I just found this article whilst roaming around via treehugger, tinyhousetalk, and something else I can't remember.
It's from http://zenhabits.net/
I have much to say on this soon ,))
‘Everything you can imagine is real.’ ~Pablo Picasso
Post written by Leo Babauta.
When I wrote the first words of this blog, more than five years ago, I had no idea those few keystrokes would change my life.
I thought I was doing nothing more than reflecting on the changes that had been happening in my life, sharing a bit about what I learned with a handful of friends. I thought those tinkling of computer keys would fade into the void, as most of my thoughts had before that.
I didn’t imagine that a year later, I would have 26,000 people reading my blog (and eventually a quarter million subscribers), that I’d finally be out of debt, that I’d have my first book publishing contract, that I’d happily hand in my resignation for my day job. All of that was out of the realm of possibility.
That’s the amazing realization here: that we rule out the possibility of great change, because it doesn’t seem realistic. For nearly two decades I focused on going to college, and working at a day job that I sometimes enjoyed but often dreaded, because that’s what we expect should happen. Starting my own business, pursuing my dreams, doing something I loved? Crazy talk.
Crazy talk is what I’m going to give you today, in hopes that perhaps one of you will expand your possibilities. It is possible — I did it, all while working a full-time job, doing free-lance writing on the side, and having a wife and six kids. I did it, even if I never dared to dream it for the first three decades of my life.
I am not someone who likes to give career advice, or teach people to be online entrepreneurs. So I’m not going to do that here. I’ll just tell you this: it’s possible. Yes, it absolutely is possible.
And I’ll share what I’ve learned, in small snippets of goodness, about doing what you love.
If you don’t think it’s possible, do a small easy test. Don’t think you can start a blog? Sign up for a free WordPress.com or Blogger.com account and do a short post. Don’t tell anyone about it. Just write a post. It costs nothing, risks nothing, takes almost no time. But you will learn you can do that one little thing, and if you pass that test, you now know your theory of impossibility was wrong. You can do this with any skill, btw, not just blogging.
Expand your tests. If you pass the first test, do another small one. Then another. Keep going and notice your confidence grow. Your skills grow along with the confidence. It’s amazingly simple. Iterate and re-iterate as long as you are having fun.
If you don’t know what you love, don’t worry. There’s no need to figure that out right away. Try something that someone else is doing, and see if you think it’s fun. The real fun part, btw, comes when you start to get good at it, so perhaps stick with it for awhile and enjoy the learning, then enjoy being good at it. If that first try doesn’t work, try something else. You don’t have to commit to one thing for your entire life. You can do a dozen a year if you want, for a decade. You’ll probably find something by then.
Find inspiration. Who else is doing what you love doing? Who is excited about it most? Follow them. Learn about them. See what path they took. Watch closely how they execute, what they do right. Learn from the best.
Reach out to a mentor. Of the people who inspire you the most, try to make contact with a few of them. If they never respond, try a few more. See if you can buy them lunch or coffee. Don’t pitch them on anything. Just ask for their help, and say you’d love for them to mentor you in a way that won’t take up much of their time. Don’t demand a lot of time, but go to them when you’re having trouble making big decisions.
Choose one passion at random. Some people have many interests and don’t know where to start. Pick one or two randomly if they’re all about equal, and just get started. Don’t let choice paralyze you. Get started, because in the end it won’t matter if you started with the wrong passion — you’ll learn something valuable no matter what. Read more.
Get good at it. You get good at something with practice. Allow your friends and family to be your first audience, readers, customers. Then take on a few others at a low cost, or increase your audience slowly. But always have an audience or customers if possible — you’ll get good much faster this way, with feedback and accountability. Read about it. Watch videos. Take a class. Join a group of others learning. Find people to partner with. Before long, you’ll be good at it.
Help others. One of the best ways to get good at something is to help others learn. Making someone’s life better with your new skill is also an amazing way to get satisfaction out of what you do, to love what you do. Help as many people as you can in any way possible — it will pay off.
Find your voice. Eventually, as you master your skill, you will learn that you are different than the thousands of others doing it. You will find your uniqueness. It’s not necessarily there at first, because you might not have the technical skills to express yourself. But eventually, find that voice. Find the thing that sets you apart, that helps you to stand out from the crowd. Then emphasize that. Read more.
How can you be valuable? What can you do that is valuable to others? Sometimes it’s doing something that they really need. Sometimes it’s doing it better than others. Sometimes it’s saving people time, or money. Other times it’s just making their lives better, brighter, pleasanter in some way.
Become an expert. If you get good at something, and help others, and find a voice, and become valuable — you’ll become an expert at what you do. Others will turn to you for advice. Help them. Read more.
Sell your own stuff. I’ve found that the best way to make a revenue, by far, is by selling your own stuff. I’ve tried ads and affiliate links, and while I have nothing against those things, the thing that works best for me is selling my own stuff. I’ve already proven to my audience that I’m valuable and honest and trustworthy, and so they are much more likely to want something that I’ve created than something I recommend made by others. So create something valuable that will help others, and sell it.
Don’t be a jerk. Too many people online are so worried about maximizing subscriber numbers or pageviews that they do things that are disrespectful to their readers. Asking me to click “Next Page” five times to read your article? Jerk move. Having a pop-up asking me to subscribe before I’ve even read the article I came to read? Jerk move. Screaming at me to “Like” your page on Facebook, when I could decide that on my own without being asked if the article was really good? Jerk move. Learn to feel what is respectful, and what’s a jerk move.
Don’t let numbers rule you. Numbers are arbitrary and basically worthless. How many readers do you have? No one really knows, and in the end the number of readers doesn’t matter as much as things like: how much do they care about your articles, how much have you helped them, how much do they trust you, how excited are they? Pageviews don’t matter, neither do Facebook fans or Twitter followers or the number of people on your mailing list. Instead of worrying about numbers, pour yourself into your work, make yourself incredibly valuable, help people as much as possible, love what you do. The numbers will come as a side effect.
It’s the doing and loving that matters. Many people focus on growing, or hitting goals, or making money, but they forget what matters. What matters most is loving what you do. If you love it, and you’re doing it, you’ve already succeeded. Don’t worry so much about achieving certain levels of success — people push themselves so hard to reach those things that they forget to enjoy what they’re doing, and in the process they lose the reason they’re doing it in the first place.
Dream bigger. Once you’ve overcome the initial fear and started to become good at something you love, dream bigger. The first stage is small steps, but don’t stop there. You can change lives. You can change the world. Doing so will change you.
POSTED: 04.19.2012
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Crazy Talk: The Do-What-You-Love Guide
‘Everything you can imagine is real.’ ~Pablo Picasso
Post written by Leo Babauta.
When I wrote the first words of this blog, more than five years ago, I had no idea those few keystrokes would change my life.
I thought I was doing nothing more than reflecting on the changes that had been happening in my life, sharing a bit about what I learned with a handful of friends. I thought those tinkling of computer keys would fade into the void, as most of my thoughts had before that.
I didn’t imagine that a year later, I would have 26,000 people reading my blog (and eventually a quarter million subscribers), that I’d finally be out of debt, that I’d have my first book publishing contract, that I’d happily hand in my resignation for my day job. All of that was out of the realm of possibility.
That’s the amazing realization here: that we rule out the possibility of great change, because it doesn’t seem realistic. For nearly two decades I focused on going to college, and working at a day job that I sometimes enjoyed but often dreaded, because that’s what we expect should happen. Starting my own business, pursuing my dreams, doing something I loved? Crazy talk.
Crazy talk is what I’m going to give you today, in hopes that perhaps one of you will expand your possibilities. It is possible — I did it, all while working a full-time job, doing free-lance writing on the side, and having a wife and six kids. I did it, even if I never dared to dream it for the first three decades of my life.
I am not someone who likes to give career advice, or teach people to be online entrepreneurs. So I’m not going to do that here. I’ll just tell you this: it’s possible. Yes, it absolutely is possible.
And I’ll share what I’ve learned, in small snippets of goodness, about doing what you love.
If you don’t think it’s possible, do a small easy test. Don’t think you can start a blog? Sign up for a free WordPress.com or Blogger.com account and do a short post. Don’t tell anyone about it. Just write a post. It costs nothing, risks nothing, takes almost no time. But you will learn you can do that one little thing, and if you pass that test, you now know your theory of impossibility was wrong. You can do this with any skill, btw, not just blogging.
Expand your tests. If you pass the first test, do another small one. Then another. Keep going and notice your confidence grow. Your skills grow along with the confidence. It’s amazingly simple. Iterate and re-iterate as long as you are having fun.
If you don’t know what you love, don’t worry. There’s no need to figure that out right away. Try something that someone else is doing, and see if you think it’s fun. The real fun part, btw, comes when you start to get good at it, so perhaps stick with it for awhile and enjoy the learning, then enjoy being good at it. If that first try doesn’t work, try something else. You don’t have to commit to one thing for your entire life. You can do a dozen a year if you want, for a decade. You’ll probably find something by then.
Find inspiration. Who else is doing what you love doing? Who is excited about it most? Follow them. Learn about them. See what path they took. Watch closely how they execute, what they do right. Learn from the best.
Reach out to a mentor. Of the people who inspire you the most, try to make contact with a few of them. If they never respond, try a few more. See if you can buy them lunch or coffee. Don’t pitch them on anything. Just ask for their help, and say you’d love for them to mentor you in a way that won’t take up much of their time. Don’t demand a lot of time, but go to them when you’re having trouble making big decisions.
Choose one passion at random. Some people have many interests and don’t know where to start. Pick one or two randomly if they’re all about equal, and just get started. Don’t let choice paralyze you. Get started, because in the end it won’t matter if you started with the wrong passion — you’ll learn something valuable no matter what. Read more.
Get good at it. You get good at something with practice. Allow your friends and family to be your first audience, readers, customers. Then take on a few others at a low cost, or increase your audience slowly. But always have an audience or customers if possible — you’ll get good much faster this way, with feedback and accountability. Read about it. Watch videos. Take a class. Join a group of others learning. Find people to partner with. Before long, you’ll be good at it.
Help others. One of the best ways to get good at something is to help others learn. Making someone’s life better with your new skill is also an amazing way to get satisfaction out of what you do, to love what you do. Help as many people as you can in any way possible — it will pay off.
Find your voice. Eventually, as you master your skill, you will learn that you are different than the thousands of others doing it. You will find your uniqueness. It’s not necessarily there at first, because you might not have the technical skills to express yourself. But eventually, find that voice. Find the thing that sets you apart, that helps you to stand out from the crowd. Then emphasize that. Read more.
How can you be valuable? What can you do that is valuable to others? Sometimes it’s doing something that they really need. Sometimes it’s doing it better than others. Sometimes it’s saving people time, or money. Other times it’s just making their lives better, brighter, pleasanter in some way.
Become an expert. If you get good at something, and help others, and find a voice, and become valuable — you’ll become an expert at what you do. Others will turn to you for advice. Help them. Read more.
Sell your own stuff. I’ve found that the best way to make a revenue, by far, is by selling your own stuff. I’ve tried ads and affiliate links, and while I have nothing against those things, the thing that works best for me is selling my own stuff. I’ve already proven to my audience that I’m valuable and honest and trustworthy, and so they are much more likely to want something that I’ve created than something I recommend made by others. So create something valuable that will help others, and sell it.
Don’t be a jerk. Too many people online are so worried about maximizing subscriber numbers or pageviews that they do things that are disrespectful to their readers. Asking me to click “Next Page” five times to read your article? Jerk move. Having a pop-up asking me to subscribe before I’ve even read the article I came to read? Jerk move. Screaming at me to “Like” your page on Facebook, when I could decide that on my own without being asked if the article was really good? Jerk move. Learn to feel what is respectful, and what’s a jerk move.
Don’t let numbers rule you. Numbers are arbitrary and basically worthless. How many readers do you have? No one really knows, and in the end the number of readers doesn’t matter as much as things like: how much do they care about your articles, how much have you helped them, how much do they trust you, how excited are they? Pageviews don’t matter, neither do Facebook fans or Twitter followers or the number of people on your mailing list. Instead of worrying about numbers, pour yourself into your work, make yourself incredibly valuable, help people as much as possible, love what you do. The numbers will come as a side effect.
It’s the doing and loving that matters. Many people focus on growing, or hitting goals, or making money, but they forget what matters. What matters most is loving what you do. If you love it, and you’re doing it, you’ve already succeeded. Don’t worry so much about achieving certain levels of success — people push themselves so hard to reach those things that they forget to enjoy what they’re doing, and in the process they lose the reason they’re doing it in the first place.
Dream bigger. Once you’ve overcome the initial fear and started to become good at something you love, dream bigger. The first stage is small steps, but don’t stop there. You can change lives. You can change the world. Doing so will change you.
POSTED: 04.19.2012
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Because We Can
I found these guys on www.treehugger.com.
I know.
I never thought I would be visiting a site called "treehugger" either.
It's caused me much shame and embarressment.
What will all my old whale-kicking buddies think!?!
I guess I won't get invited to 2013 Snout Smashers Convention.
Dang.
Anyhooooooo....
Because We Can is a design/build architecture firm that has some really cool notions of what could be built.
Great pictures on the site and their blog.
I gotta get one of those big CNC machines.
http://www.becausewecan.org/
P.S. The tube on the wall is for kitty transport.
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Well thank goodness SOMEONE is preparing!
BRITAIN'S Ministry of Defence is prepared for a Zombie Apocalypse - but the crisis would have to be managed by civil authorities.
"In the event of an apocalyptic incident (eg zombies), any plans to rebuild and return England to its pre-attack glory would be led by the Cabinet Office, and thus any pre-planning activity would also taken place there," the MoD statement read.
"The Ministry of Defence's role in any such event would be to provide military support to the civil authorities, not take the lead. Consequently, the Ministry of Defence holds no information on this matter."
The Telegraph reports the MoD response is just the latest in a string of enquiries directed at all levels of government about zombie apocalypse plans.
While most are embarrassingly forced to admit a lack of thought when it comes to an undead pandemic, the Bristol city council has presented a surprising level of preparedness.
A Freedom of Information request produced a copy of a "top secret" Bristol city council strategy document.
In it, council staff members were told they would be warned a zombie pandemic was underway through code words broadcast in radio and television reports
US government preps citizens for zombies
Occupational health and safety advice on the correct way to kill zombies was also issued.
"A catalogue of standard issue equipment cuffs, stun guns, protection suits, etc is available on the staff intranet," the document said.
The weapons were procured "where possible, in line with our buy-local policy," the report added.
The Telegraph reports spurious questions such as these are raising concerns that hard-won Freedom of Information rights may be curtailed.
Banned zombie advert
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